Reinforced luggage construction



O. J. OHANIAN REINFORCED LUGGAGE CONSTRUCTION July 7,- 1953 Filed Aug.v 19, 1950 .I lll" 111V Q F'IG. 3.

www mm Nm V O mH Wn O A .Q JY RB A G 5 o Patented July 7, 153

I UN1TE'D" 'STATI3`S f PATENT OFFICE Osgar J. Ohanan, Philadelphia, Pa. y v Application' August 19, 195o, SepriaiNo. 180,481 v 1l claim. (ci. 19o-54) l A conventional suit case includes a frame and an outer covering formed of leather or other material. The frame is made of two parts hinged along the bottom median line and closure or locking means are provided along the top median line.

In the interests of strength and appearance, the covering for each half of the suit case is made of one piece and, to make it possible to bend the covering material over the top and bottom corners, slits are provided which substantially bisect the angles of the corners. These slitsv extend across the top and bottom walls of the suit case and are continued to a slight extent at the junction of the vertical side and end walls of the suit case.

The provision of the slit referred to weakens the construction and it is therefore a further object of the invention to produce an improved construction whereby the corners of the bag, which are weakened by the slit referred to, are adequately reinforced.

It is now the practice to cover the slit referred to by a suitably shaped piece of material which is commonly referred to as trim and it is.there fore a still further object of the invention to produce an improved construction whereby the reinforcing means of my invention is combined with and covered by said trim.

A still further object is to produce reinforcing means which will be light, inconspicuous, effective and inexpensive. v

These and other objects are attained by Amy invention as set forth in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. v1 is a top plan view of a suit case provided with the reinforcing means of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a greatly enlarged bottom plan view of a piece of trim provided with the reinforcing means of my invention.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3--3 on Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary top plan View of the bottom left hand corner of the suit case, as shown in Fig. 1, but'before the application of any hardware on the trim of Fig. 2 thereto.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary elevational view of one i of the corners of the bag.

In Fig. 1 there is shown a conventional suit case having end walls 6 and side walls 1 which are bent so as to form the corners 8 and top hori-v derstood that the bottom corners, as far as conventional practice is concerned, are identical with the top corners, and that the invention hereinafter set forth applies to all the cornersl of the bag.

y As above stated, a slit III is provided at the junction of each adjacent end and side wall and, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the slit III begins at a point P just below the junction of the side Walls 'I and end walls 6 with the adjacent top sections 9 and extends to the free edges II of the connected top sections 9. It will be noted that each slit substantially bisects the angle formed by the intersection of the planes of the adjacent side and end walls, as best shown in Figs. 1 and 4. Conventionally, the slit referred to is covered with a piece of trim I2 such as that shown in Fig. 2. This trim has any desired configuration, is long enough fully to cover the slit I0, and has a straight edge I4 which, when the trim is in poisition as shown in Fig. l, coincides with the free edge II of the corresponding top section 9. In Fig. 1, the free edges of the topI sections 9 are covered by the overlapping strip I5 which forms part of the conventional bag construction. The trimV I2 is suitably secured in position by lines of stitches I6, as best show in Fig. 1, or by any other suitable means.

As stated, the provision of the slit I9 weakens the structure at the corners -which are a critical factor in the strength of the bag, and especially in resisting downward pressure on the bag, as when someone sits on the bag or when a number of bags are piled on top of each other.

In order to overcome this difficulty I use a re- K nforcing member I8 which is bent, as best shown at 29 in Fig. 3, so as to conform to the contour of the corner of the bag and which is secured to the underside of the trim I2. The reinforcing member I8 may be made of a piece of steel or of any other material which has the required strength and which can be bent or molded to approximately the curvature shown at the left of Fig. 3. In the embodiment shown, the reinforcing member I8 is secured to the underside of the trim I2 by means of adhesive tape 22 but it may be secured in place by any other means. It is preferable, however, to secure the reinforcing member I8 to the underside of the trim I2 in such a fashion that the fastening means will not project through the trim I2.

In practice, the trim I2 and the reinforcing member I8 are cut, bent and assembled into a unit and are then applied to the corners of the bag with the reinforcing member I2 overlviwr 3 the slit l0. The trim I2 is then stitched to the top section 9 as at I6.

In this Way, the weakened corners of the bag are reinforced sufliciently to withstand the impact and pressure to which the bag is normally subjected and the cost and weight of the bag are not materially increased.

What I claim is:

A suit case formed of two symmetrical parts each including vertical sideand endwalls and horizontal top and bottom Walls, there being slits formed in each of said parts, said slits bisecting the corners formed by the junction of adjacent vertical side and horizontal Walls, saidslits exand vertical portions of a slit, an outer piece of trim bigger than, but bent similarly to, said rigid v member, means securing said rigid member to the underside of said piece lof trim, and means for securing said piece of trim to said vertical and horizontal Walls. Y

OSGAR J. OHANTAN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

